I believe that Loyola (AAA silver) beat many of the top ranked teams at AAAA this year as did Martingrove, Anderson, Orchard Park and possibly others.

Loyola and Martingrove, yes. The others, no. The gold and silver medal teams would both been top-8 seeds at AAAA OFSAA but no other team from AAA would have been seeded any higher than 13 or 14. #2 Anderson never once beat a GTA top-10 team while Jarvis was beaten by a number of GTA teams that didn't even make the final four of their respective leagues in the GTA. Orchard Park and Parkside were the best of Hamilton Public but neither gave Thomas More a challenge. #6 Dennison played Vaughan close in the York final but they were consistently beaten by top-20 GTA teams all season.

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All I am saying is that the gap between AAA and AAAA was not as big as it has been since its inception a few years ago because many of the top AAAA programs lost some key players to the prep schools in the states.

I would argue that the gap between the top two teams at AAA and the top teams at AAAA was very close but the depth of AAA was still far below that of AAAA. Teams like Pickering (#1 in Ontario for a portion of the season), D'Youville (who slapped the Ottawa competition earlier this year and was second at SOSI) and Campion (who knocked off a number of top GTA teams before losing a very close final at the top tournament in the province this year, St. Mike's) all failed to make the final 8 in AAAA.

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One area where I am not yet in agreement with oldtymeballer is whether a team would rather travel to AAA ofsaa than play up in AAAA here in two years. It would be in our association's best interest to have our best teams play in the local ofsaa. Also, by staying you save all of the hassles of travelling. I know this is not a great indicator, but if you look at this year's junior teams you might be able to predict the teams that will need to make these considerations (St. Peter, Louis Riel, Sacred Heart, Borden, St. Matts, and St. Pats). As the coach for Borden, knowing that our team did really well this year and that we will add Farhan and possibly 5th year guys to that team, I would hope to have a chance to make the decision between AAA and AAAA and right now I would lean to staying home and compete at AAAA. Still, a lot can change in two years!

I haven't actually taken a side on the issue; I just put the question out there and offered some reasons why it might not be a slam dunk decision in terms of staying in Ottawa.

In my opinion, assuming no transfers, St. Peter's would have the best chance at being competitive in AAAA OFSAA this year. They had a nice run at both the Junior Rimrocker and the Kennedy Classic this season, something we haven't seen from any Ottawa junior teams since the St. Pat's junior team in 05-06...and we all know how well they developed two years later.

Ottawa teams rarely come down to Toronto though and other teams in Ottawa (namely St Pats with 3 grade 9's and 4 grade 10's I believe and SRB with Farhan) had top juniors playing senior. Those 2 teams would have beaten St Pete's handily this year I would think had those players been left in junior however for development purposes, they were moved up. Once they get to join their teams in Sr vs the same St Pete's team, I don't see St Pete doing the job but if you were impressed with them then surely, other teams in Ottawa can bring their games to the level of the top Toronto teams.

I was told that one of the reasons St. Pat's moved those players up to senior is that the prep school scouts have been sniffing around. Don't expect many of them to be around by grade 11 and 12. OTOH, St. Pete's only has one player who might interest the prep schools before he finishes grade 12 and a couple of sources told me his parents really want to keep him in Ottawa until he graduates and then, depending on offers, perhaps a year of finishing in a prep school.

While I was impressed by St. Pete's I don't want to give the impression that I think they are comparable to the elite of the province at this point. They played well at the Rimrocker but they only made the final 16; the final 8 were all GTA...and that didn't include Henry Carr which apparently is banned from the tournament after the idiotic stunt their players pulled last year. At the Kennedy, they beat a couple of decent teams before losing to D'Youville in the semi-finals. D'Youville is somewhere around 8-10 in the GTA rankings.

This all has the making of a competitive team at AAA but I don't think it makes them a contender for AAAA unless the prep school exodus in the GTA turns into a flood.

Remember Loyola went to overtime in two of their ofsaa games so the teams ranked lower than them could not have been that far off. I also believe, though could definitely be wrong, that Parkside and OP beat St. Thomas More earlier in the season. I know that for a while, Parkside was considered the #1 Hamilton team according to Hoopla.com. Though I have no idea who they beat, I was told that the reason Anderson got the #2 seed at ofsaa was because they beat some top competition from the GTA.

I looked through a year's worth of results and I can't find a single case of Parkside or Orchard park beating St. Thomas More. The only game I can find between either of them and a top GHAC team is a win by Holy Trinity (#3 in Halton) over Parkside in the semis of the Parkside tournament. Of course, I might have missed something.

As far as Anderson beating top GTA competition is concerned, I have no idea how the seeding committee defined "top competition". They didn't once make the HooptownGTA rankings: not the top-16; not the honourable mention; and never on the bubble. Considering that some teams hung around on these lists thanks to one or two mildly impressive wins in early season tournaments, I can't see Anderson sneaking in some big wins an no one noticing. Their one tournament championship of note (SBA) did not include any ranked teams. I suspect simply being in the Silver Fox boosted their seeding but they played no one of note in the first two rounds (the tournament has lost most if it's depth to St. Mike's the past two years) before losing by 23 to an Oakwood team that went to its bench early and rarely had more than two starters on the court at a time the rest of the game.